EL SEGUNDO – When the Lakers were merely a bad free throw shooting team, Luke Walton insisted they would improve through repetition. The foul shots they made in practice would eventually start falling in games.

After Friday’s 2-for-14 debacle, the Lakers coach is ready to pull out the big guns.

“We have another meditation scheduled on the books for when we get back from this road trip,” Walton said. “I was thinking about having him try to focus on some sort of relaxing mechanism while you step up to the line but we haven’t brought in anyone yet.”

It’s fitting that next up for the Lakers is the New York Knicks, the team whose failure to respond to the techniques of Walton’s mentor, Phil Jackson, drove the former Lakers coach out of the Big Apple.

And while he has not gone full Zen Master with the Lakers, Walton did say he contemplated burning sage to expunge negative vibes when the Lakers aired out their grievances last month.

“Your mind is … like a muscle,” Walton said. “It can be trained. It needs work, it needs quiet time, especially in today’s world that we live in with social media and constant stimulation to your phone all day. It’s important for guys to understand you can train your mind to gain an advantage in this sport that we play.”

The Lakers 68.8 percent percentage from the line is the worst in the NBA. Oklahoma City, which ranks 29th, shoots nearly 2 points better, at 70.4 percent.

“It is very confusing,” Walton said. “Free throws are more mental than anything. We talk about it, we work on it.”

When that doesn’t work?
“Then I try to not talk about it,” he said, “let it just happen naturally.”
That’s clearly no better.

Jordan Clarkson was the only Lakers player to make free throws Friday – a game the Lakers managed to win over Indiana – while the rest of the team combined to miss all 11 shots they took.

“It was crazy,” Larry Nance Jr. said. Isn’t that like a record or something?”

He added sarcastically, “Good for us.”

Walton has periodically worked with his players on mindfulness techniques, and they met with the meditation specialist once last month. Nance said it after eventually settling your mind, the techniques helped him achieve a “state of peace,” which sure sounds like something the Lakers need – at the foul line and elsewhere.

The question is whether a collection of players in their early 20s can embrace such ancient techniques.

“I think with any group of people, somebody will buy into it more than others,” Nance said. “And for the guys that do buy into it, it seems like it helps them and they are really trying to pull something out of it. … It is obviously not for everybody but there are definitely guys trying to grasp it.”

KNEED YOU NOW – Lonzo Ball progressed to exercising on a treadmill on Saturday, but he will remain out at least through Sunday’s game while he recovers from a swollen left knee that has already cost him three games.

“There’s some steps that come after the treadmill that you’ve got to go on the court,” Walton said, “do agility work, be able to cut, change direction, sprint, all that type of stuff before you get to try to practice.”

The Lakers are hopeful they will get Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (strained left Achilles) and Brandon Ingram (left ankle sprain) back on Sunday.

Ball has missed nine games this season, with injuries to his shoulder and knee. Walton said the rookie point guard will be in better position to avoid those injuries as he gets older and stronger.

“I think as players grow, especially when they’re players (who) come in young,” Walton said, “part of it is growing into your body. You become stronger, and as you become stronger I think you become more durable.”

Bill Oram covers the Los Angeles Lakers for the Southern California News Group. He covered the Utah Jazz for the Salt Lake Tribune. He is the (usually) bearded guy in the background wearing a University of Montana hat.